A doctor has gone viral on TikTok after explaining a crazy hack to stop nausea that can actually work for some people.
Dr. Karan Raj is a UK-based NHS surgeon who has racked up more than 5.2 million followers on the site and regularly gives medical advice.
Doctor explains crazy nausea hack
The doctor responded to a video of a woman sniffing a bag full of lemon juice to stop herself from feeling travel sick on a train and said: “If you want an easy way to help with nausea, this might actually work thanks to a few shortcuts in your hardware.”
Dr. Raj explained that your sense of smell is governed by the olfactory system in your nose, which is closely related to the brain’s limbic system. This is the part of the brain involved in our behavioural and emotional responses, and it has a role in regulating nausea.
“When you inhale the scent of lemon juice or citrus, it can stimulate the limbic system, thus helping to relieve the symptoms of nausea,” he said.
The aroma of lemon can also stimulate your salivary glands, increasing saliva production and in turn increasing gastric emptying. That’s just a fancy term for the time it takes for food to empty out of your stomach. More saliva means it empties faster, and this also alleviates nausea.
Nausea hack
Smelling a strong scent like lemon can also be a “sensory distraction,” shifting your attention away from what’s causing the nausea and redirecting it towards the smell.
After lemon relieves your nausea once, your brain can then form associations with that scent, stopping the sick feeling again in the future. This is known as a “conditioned response,” helping reduce nausea when you encounter that same scent again.
The hack could be used to stop all kinds of nausea, from motion sickness to migraines and even morning sickness. A study.) into nausea and vomiting in pregnancy found that 40% of women have used lemon scent to relieve sickness, and 26.5% of them said it was effective.
However, while smelling lemon can reduce nausea in some people, it isn’t guaranteed to stop everyone from feeling sick.
Other sickness-relief methods
MedlinePlus explains that treatments for nausea and vomiting depend on the cause, and you may need treatment for the underlying problem. For example, some things that cause nausea include food poisoning, acid reflux, gastroenteritis, certain medications and intestinal instructions.
However, they recommend the following things to feel better:
- Get enough fluids, to avoid dehydration. Drink small amounts of clear liquids often
- Eat bland foods and stay away from spicy, fatty, or salty foods
- Eat smaller meals more often
- Avoid strong smells, since they can sometimes trigger nausea and vomiting
- If you are pregnant, eat crackers before you get out of bed in the morning
Contact your healthcare provider immediately if you have a reason to think that your vomiting is from poisoning, have been vomiting for longer than 24 hours or there is blood in the vomit. Also, seek professional help if you have severe abdominal pain, severe headache and stiff neck or signs of dehydration, such as dry mouth, infrequent urination or dark urine.
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